TOPIC LAND OWNERSHIP DURING PRE-

COLONIAL PERIOD
group 1
Marie Remelyn P. Aala
Group 1
 PRE-COLONIAL TIMES
BARANGAY 30-100 families

STEWARDSHIP LAND CHIEF

relationship
between man and
nature is
important
 PRE-COLONIAL LAND AND SOCIAL SYSTEM
since the 16th Century in Bohol Philippines

• Before colonization, and even under colonization in most parts of the archipelago,
land was not considered as private property. There was no centralized regional
authority, and people lived in communities called barangays. Father Alcina
reported in 1668 that people made no distinction between “my land and your
• land.”
The land use in the barangay was under arrangement of the community chief datu.
The datu was the hereditary chief but did not have any absolute power over the
community. A datu did not control the territory of the barangay, but rather its
members, the timawa. In the pre-colonial land and social system, various
resources, from land and trees to imported luxurious goods, were under the chief’s
control, though the chief did not own them.
Bryan R. Adame
Group 1
 LAND TENURE SYSTEM IN THE
PRE-COLONIAL ERA. GHANA
o By land tenure system, we simply mean how right to land is obtained and
distributed in a particular society. During the pre-colonial era, the population
of Ghana was small and land was in abundance. This was the results of the
hamlets they pitched during their hunting expeditions, which later developed
big, bigger
o Today, the and into biggest
acquisition settlements
of land is very now.
difficult and those in possession are
making millions of cedis from it by selling to those who could afford buying.
o Interestingly in Ghana, individual families in any given village usually possess
land through clearing the virgin bush. Any portion of land that an individual
acquired in this way, the community respected or protected his or her right to
use it for life. This meant that land title holding in the pre-colonial era was the
ability to clear it for farming purposes.
 LAND TENURE SYSTEM IN THE
PRE-COLONIAL ERA. GHANA
o Also, other individuals who were able to establish farms deep in the forests
had right to such lands. The people always believed that the thickets of the
forests harbor spirits of all kinds including dangerous animals so for someone
to be able to do that meant the courageous nature of the individual and such is
given
o In the the right to own
communities, that landamong
especially for his the
bravery.
chiefs and elders also referred to the
bravery of many past chiefs in fighting wars that won their communities large
tracts
o An of conquered
individual, wholands.
is not an indigene of an area, could also acquire land if,
and only if, he or she is socially and politically acceptable in the community.
One would do this by officially consulting the chief of the village, expressing
the desire. Here, the usufructuary’s continuous right to the land depended on
his or her loyalty and obedience to the leadership of the community
concerned. On his death, the land reverted back to the community.
 LAND TENURE SYSTEM IN THE
PRE-COLONIAL ERA. GHANA
o It is important to stress that although the individual may acquire land and have
right to its usage even for life, the truth is that the individual did not own the
land as such but enjoyed its usufruct. This is because as noted earlier on, the
real owners of the land in any traditional community in Ghana are the
ancestors on whose stead the chief stands. That is, the chief has the custody of
all land in his jurisdiction. This implies that land in Ghana and in most of
Africa has economic, religious and political connotations.
 LAND TENURE SYSTEM IN THE
PRE-COLONIAL ERA. GHANA
LAND DISTRIBUTION
• During the pre-colonial era, the main means of getting access to agricultural
land was through lineage (Joireman, 2007). Usually the land was shared
among those who trace their lineage through a common female ancestor
• There
(Berry,was
1988,no5).discrimination against either gender for land use under this
system. However, because it was the men’s duty to feed their respective
family members, they cultivated more land than women but the women
controlled the produce in their granaries. In fact, there was no marked
differentiation under this system of land tenure.